The Charlotte News
Tuesday, August 25, 1953
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that in Panmunjom, another 136 Americans and 264 other U.N. prisoners of war, of whom 250 were South Koreans, had been freed this date. Thus far, nearly 2,000 of the more than 3,300 Americans scheduled to be released, had been freed. The returnees this date were primarily quiet, with a few being jubilant, but appeared in good health. Nine of the Americans were low-ranking officers. The following day, the Communists had promised to liberate 133 more Americans among another 400 prisoners to be released. Peiping radio said that the Communists had notified the U.N. Command of the burial locations of 1,651 allied soldiers who had died during captivity, but the U.N. Command said that the number was still far below the number of unnacounted missing.
The Communist prisoners freed by the U.N. Command continued their violent demonstrations, with the return being interrupted three times when North Koreans spat in the faces of two allied officers.
The Communists advised that 400 prisoners had chosen not to repatriate, not breaking down the group by nationalities. Some Americans thus far released had told of some prisoners not wishing to repatriate, either because they had become informers and feared retaliation or had accepted Communist propaganda.
A 30-person U.N. Red Cross team returning this date to Munsan after spending three weeks in North Korea, said that the only prisoners they had been allowed to interview regarding conditions had been hand-picked by the Communists, and had to talk in the presence of the Chinese guards, so did not utter any complaints. The head of the team said that it was a closely conducted tour under an armed escort from "a lot of nasty little thugs". He had questioned the Communists about Maj. General William Dean, commander of the U.S. 24th Division who had been captured in the early days of the war, but received no answers.
The Defense Department informed a Montana farmer that his son, who was a corporal, believed for a month to have died during one of the last actions of the war in Korea, had in fact been freed from a North Korean prison camp. Eyewitnesses from the corporal's squad had reported seeing him killed by a burst of enemy artillery during a Chinese Communist offensive during mid-July and said that they had been unable to recover his body. The Army then informed the corporal's parents that he had been killed, sending along his Purple Heart.
In Alameda, Calif., a near riot occurred at the Alameda Naval Air Station the previous day when the Navy barred wives, sweethearts and other relatives from welcoming three shiploads of returning Korean War veterans. The crowd became angry and forced their way past Marine guards. The Navy, initially blaming the Army, retracted that statement and reported that it had erred and that relatives could visit with the returning troops. By that point, hundreds of the troops had already passed on toward Camp Stoneman where they were undergoing processing for leaves, leaving many relatives stranded without a greeting.
At the U.N. in New York, New Zealand's lead delegate called on the organization this date to ignore South Korea's threat to boycott the upcoming peace conference if India were included. He said that he could not believe that the Government of South Korea would jeopardize the conference on that basis and that if it did, it would jeopardize its country. Britain favored inclusion of India but the U.S. did not, arguing that to admit it would discriminate against other neutrals interested in Korea, such as Japan and Nationalist China. South Korea believed India was sympathetic to Communism.
In Paris, the strikes of workers in response to Premier Joseph Laniel's economic austerity program, which had promised cutbacks of Government workers and extension of the retirement age, appeared to diminish this date as more trains were running, mail and telephone communication had improved and the Government had garaged most of the Army trucks which had replaced the bus and subway transportation systems. The Communists, however, were doing their best to keep the walkouts going, calling on the taxi drivers of Paris to strike. The steering committee of the National Assembly had decided the previous night against calling the deputies back into special session, ruling that not enough requests from lawmakers had been received to warrant the move, which had been urged by the Communist and Socialist members, many of the striking unions having made such a special session a condition of their return to work. French tourist officials said that the blow to the country had been terrific, as many hotels, normally jammed in mid-August, were half empty.
In Tehran, life was returning to normal after the coup of the previous week and arrest and jailing of former Premier Mohammed Mossadegh, the return of the Shah to the country after a six-day exile, and the installation of the new Premier, General Fazollah Zahedi, who had arranged the coup. The new Premier told reporters that Iran would go slowly in resuming diplomatic relations with Britain, which had been broken off by Premier Mossadegh the prior October, following the collapse of negotiations over the nationalized British oil properties. He also said, however, that he would not renew a law which the former Premier had pushed through six months earlier, offering Iran's oil at half the world market price, as the law was about to expire. Businesses in Tehran were opening again. Operators of some businesses which had refrained from opening were arrested. The Government was reported to have raided centers of the outlawed Communist Tudeh Party. The country's most potent religious leader, the Ayatollah Kashani, predicted the previous night that the new Government would hold elections for 57 new deputies to give the parliament's lower house a quorum. The new Premier said that negotiations with Russia would soon reopen and that his Cabinet would continue the attitude taken by the former Government in talks which had begun on August 13. Those talks had bogged down after two sessions because of Russia's refusal to discuss revision of its 1921 treaty with Iran, providing the Soviets the right to move troops into Iran if any foreign power made the country its base for aggression against Russia. Iran was seeking 11 tons of gold which it claimed for services provided to Russian troops during World War II and settlement of long-time claims to various pieces of land along the Russian-Iranian frontier.
The President, still vacationing in Denver, planned to meet with Mexico's President Adolpho Ruiz Cortines on the U.S.-Mexican border on October 19 to dedicate the Falcon Dam on the Rio Grande River. The President would meet with President José Antonio Remon Cantera of Panama in Washington on September 28. The President would speak in Kansas City on October 15 at the convention of the Future Farmers of America, and on October 17 would speak in New Orleans at the Louisiana sesquicentennial celebration.
In Japan, a flight of B-36 heavy bombers landed at an American base in Tokyo this date after a nonstop trip from bases in the U.S. The flight occurred under strict security. General O. P. Weyland, commander of the Far East Air Forces, issued a statement saying that the long-range mission of the intercontinental bombers was part of the U.S. Air Force policy of overseas training conducted by the Strategic Air Command, headed by General Curtis LeMay.
In Tokyo, the Nippon Times reported that a reliable administration source had said that the Japanese Government was planning to increase the nation's tiny Army by 20,000 men annually, beginning in 1954. The newspaper said that it was being done "as collateral for the U.S. mutual security aid". It quoted the Finance Minister of Japan as indicating that he had gleaned the impression from a meeting this date with Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida that in a meeting recently with Secretary of State Dulles in Tokyo, the two men had reached a broad understanding regarding national defense. He said that the Prime Minister would likely again meet with Secretary Dulles soon in Washington, at the International Monetary Fund meeting.
In Somerville, Mass., a 25-year old stenographer, described as "very pretty", was being sought for questioning in the slaying of a 14-year old friend. She was believed to be possibly broke and unable to travel. She had been in a Boston bar the previous night looking for a drink for a nickel, because it was all the money she had. She had recently obtained a .22-caliber target pistol, easily obtained at many sporting goods stores. She had kept company with the victim's brother for about three years until he had married another girl four months earlier. The medical examiner said that five bullets, from a gun of the type the woman had, entered the victim's heart, head, jaw, abdomen and left wrist, and her throat had also been cut by a razor or sharp knife. Motor oil had been poured over her body and newspapers and a magazine had been placed around it, and set ablaze. The oil had not caught fire, however, and the burning papers only slightly scorched the victim's side before one of the victim's brothers smelled smoke and put out the fire. That brother had passed the young woman on the front steps of the home and had chatted with her for a few minutes before he had entered the house and smelled the smoke. He said she appeared calm as she left. The victim's father had gone home for lunch and found the young woman with his daughter. He had directed the young woman to leave and she said that she would do so after she had another cigarette.
In Charlotte, it was announced that with the exception of a $5,000 bequest to his long-time secretary, the late former Governor and Senator Cameron Morrison had bequeathed in his will all of his property to his daughter, based on the filing in the office of the Clerk.
On the sports page, Julian Scheer made public this date for the first time details of the N.C.A.A.'s inquiry into alleged basketball recruiting irregularities at N.C. State, coached by Everett Case. A series of articles would present the N.C.A.A. inquiries and explanations made by N.C. State.
In Albuquerque, N.M., a $4,650 mink coat was to have been given away the following month by a supermarket in a stamp contest, but someone had stolen the coat.
In Fresno, Calif., a man, pictured, who claimed to be 100 years old, was arrested for vagrancy, a charge he denied, saying that when he became too old to work, he had taken to traveling. He was arrested while sleeping under a tree. He said that during his travels, he walked most of the time. That made him a saunterer, not a vagrant.
On the editorial page, "Remember the 'Atlantic Community'?" indicates that its "Atlantic Community" file had routinely received new information each week until about a year earlier. There were contributions from various columnists and publications within the file. Until two years earlier, statesmen were also constantly referring to the Atlantic Community, instances of which it reviews.
But the President had surprised and disappointed his allies on both sides of the Atlantic for not taking a leadership role in continuation of the concept of the Atlantic community. It finds that there were several likely reasons for that lack of stress. First, the Republicans and the President were concerned with ending the Korean War and with paying more attention to Asia, which had been done. Second, the President, and particularly Secretary of State Dulles, appeared to believe that ratification by the six participant nations of the European Defense Community, to provide for a united European army, was the next step in Europe. Since the President had left his role as supreme commander of NATO to begin the presidential campaign at the beginning of June, 1952, old national jealousies, fears and frailties had resurfaced in Europe. West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer said privately that his country would go along with EDC, but begged that it not be mentioned prior to the September 6 parliamentary elections. The French internationalists were sidelined as the Government struggled through its domestic crises. Italy's Premier Alcide de Gasperi, who had been strongly pro-Western, was now out of office. Western Europe was drifting away from the U.S. because of disappointment over its preoccupation with Asia, its concerns about Senator McCarthy, the draw from the Communists, and because of irritation over differences regarding the Korean talks at the U.N. The trend was being encouraged by nationalists on both sides of the Atlantic, and, it posits, it needed to be reversed by the President. It urges that he deliver a speech similar to that of his farewell address at the end of his time as supreme commander of NATO, when he urged the cutting away of artificial barriers which shackled free men's development.
It concludes that the Atlantic community was as vital as ever and needed the President's leadership and personal attention.
"Recognition for Camp Butner Experiment" indicates that since 1949, the State had been conducting a quiet experiment with young first-time criminal offenders, which had been written up in the current week's issue of Reader's Digest, authored by Don Wharton, a graduate of Davidson College. He had described Camp Butner as a prison without walls, bars, guards or guns, regarding it as "a strong argument in North Carolina's battle to modernize its entire prison system." He explained that Butner had taken first offenders between the ages of 16 and 25, who had been convicted of crimes ranging from theft to murder, with a similar center opened near Raleigh for youthful black offenders, and taught them to get along with society by going out and meeting it, leaving the camp to attend church and to take part in community entertainment. When their terms were completed, they would receive the help of committees of North Carolina businessmen in finding jobs in nearly 50 cities.
Out of 247 offenders released, only ten had subsequently gotten into trouble, and of the 340 who had entered Butner, only 51 had run away, 30 of whom had returned voluntarily.
The piece indicates that North Carolina had long known of the work being done at Butner, and observes that now a substantial part of the nation would know about it as well.
"Et Ceterin' Agin'" refers back to its et cetera editorial of the previous week, finding that the Government was still in a tizzy both with allies and the Communists regarding the Panmunjom agreement and its meaning of et cetera with regard to the issues to be discussed, in addition to Korea, at the upcoming political conference.
The previous day, the Government had asked the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington to reinstate the dismissed four perjury counts against Owen Lattimore, which had been thrown out by the District Court judge, the Government contending that the judge had "misconstrued the counts so as to create the new and spurious issues of free speech, conformity of ideas, imposition of orthodox views, etc."
It finds that when the inevitable controversy arose, the public should blame that tail-end et cetera rather than the District Court judge, Mr. Lattimore or Senator McCarthy for the problem.
A piece from the Smithfield Herald, titled "That Second Table", indicates that it was the time of the year for family reunions, that such late summer family dinners were a tradition from the past, revisiting childhood memories. It recalls that the children had always waited to be served at a second table, while the adults, between 10 and 20 of them typically, got the first chance at the chicken as the children played in the yard or climbed trees. The adults ate the breast, the second joints and the crisp livers, even some of the drumsticks. The children were then lucky to obtain a few drumsticks to go along with the wings, the necks and the gizzards. Possibly, the rice, corn and beans were also becoming cold, as it was an adults' world.
It questions, however, whose world it was now, as the children were eating first while the fathers sat on the terrace and talked politics or farming or business, and the mothers prepared the meals for the children.
Drew Pearson indicates that there was an interesting backstage factor behind the President's long flight from Denver to New York to dedicate the Baruch housing project. Bernard Baruch, for whose father the housing project was named, had been wavering in his support of the new President since he had supported him during the fall campaign. He was irritated by some of the new Administration's economic policies, especially the rising prices and higher interest rates. Shortly before Congress had adjourned at the beginning of August, Mr. Baruch had held a secret breakfast conference with 16 Democratic Senators, at which he said scathing things about the Administration's fiscal policies and the fact that the national debt was being increased by the Treasury policy of paying higher interest rates on Government bonds. He had been particularly critical of Randolph Burgess, special assistant to the Secretary of the Treasury, in charge of floating Government loans and who had recommended the increased interest. Mr. Burgess was a former official of the National City Bank, and Mr. Baruch had told the Democratic Senators that when he had learned of certain of his policies, he had withdrawn his 1.5 million dollar account from that bank. He warned the Senators that the U.S. would face a deflationary period and that deflation could always be dangerous, but added that if the Government were cautious and careful, the country could weather the storm. He placed special emphasis on the importance of building up defense pacts with Europe and felt that NATO could not only be a steadying influence on defense but would also head off overly drastic deflation. The Senators left the breakfast convinced that Mr. Baruch had definitely returned to the Democratic fold and that his economic wisdom was as sound as ever. News leaked of the supposedly secret breakfast and it was why the President had suddenly flown from Denver, where he had been taking his vacation, to New York.
During the dedication ceremonies of the housing project, New York City planner Robert Moses, a Republican, had criticized the President's housing policies while the President was on the dais with him. He said that recent cuts by Congress had "indicated a deplorable resurgence of hard-boiled reactionaries to whom acreage is more important than people", cutting housing projects, such as the Baruch project, in half. He continued that the Taft public housing and slum clearance act had been gutted just before the Senator had died of cancer, first by an appropriations cut and second by the President's appointment of former Congressman Albert Cole to oversee the program.
Joseph Alsop discusses the Russian hydrogen bomb test of August 12, indicates that U.S. Government analysts had reported that it was apparently a test similar to that conducted by the U.S. in 1951 on Eniwetok, which was a bomb with a power of 250 kilotons, compared to the November 1, 1952 thermonuclear test, which was a bomb with a power of between three and five megatons. Thus, it was predicted that the Russians would not have a full-scale hydrogen bomb until 1954. Meanwhile, there were reliable expert forecasts of an early test of a much larger U.S. hydrogen bomb, with power as high as ten megatons.
The U.S. ostensibly therefore had the lead in atomic energy production, supporting the statement by the chairman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy, Representative Sterling Cole, that the U.S. program was "preeminent". Nevertheless, according to U.S. official estimates, Russia was able to deliver a crippling air-atomic attack on the country at present, and within 18 to 24 months would be able to deliver a devastating attack, one which would force surrender. The recent Soviet test suggested that the estimates had erred, if at all, on the side of caution. To compound the problem, Russia had rapidly built up its air defense against U.S. capabilities, while the U.S. had no substantial air defense.
When the new President entered office the prior January, he found a warning of grave danger, with an ambitious air defense program planned to ward it off. Initially, the President appeared to have been impressed, but because the air defense program would cost a lot of money and many of the President's advisers were of the opinion that taxes were more dangerous than hydrogen bombs, it had been set aside. The National Security Council had not undertaken to correct the problem. Three major committee reports had supplemented the vast amount of data left behind by the Truman Administration. The Kelly committee, headed by Dr. Mervin Kelly of Bell Telephone Laboratories, was composed of leading scientists and industrialists, who recommended a strong air defense program. The Edwards committee, headed by Lt. General Idwal Edwards, was designed to assess Soviet air-atomic capabilities and had underscored the extent of the danger. The Bull committee, headed by Maj. General Harold Bull, had been chosen by the National Security Council to obtain a report from members of the new Administration, and had recommended an even stronger program than had the Kelly committee. A fourth committee on air defense had presently been named, composed of industrialists and others "whose most conspicuous qualification appears to be total ignorance of the problem." Mr. Alsop regards the most interesting thing about the new committee to be the presence of James Black, president of the Pacific Gas & Electric Co., who had been on a committee selected by Budget Office director Joseph Dodge and his allies, which had reported to the NSC that balancing the budget was far more important than defense.
It all added up to the conclusion that the growing Soviet air-atomic threat would be ignored or, at best, dealt with by halfway measures. The trend was to give tax and budget problems priority over defense, a road pioneered by British Prime Ministers Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain, in the lead-up to World War II. That appeared, ventures Mr. Alsop, to be the road which would be taken, unless the President firmly decided otherwise or the new Joint Chiefs intervened, the two "last hopes".
Marquis Childs indicates that the free food giveaway program for East Germans, funded by the U.S. Government, had been forced out of the news by the Soviet detonation of a hydrogen bomb, the coup in Iran and other events on the world stage, as well by the fact that there had to be revised administration in West Berlin for the distribution. Public school buildings had been used as distribution centers and they had to be given up because of the start of the school year. It was also necessary to recruit a larger staff on a long-term basis from among the unemployed to continue the distribution.
For the realists, the giveaway program was an event likely to help Chancellor Konrad Adenauer as he approached the September 6 West German parliamentary elections. Others, however, hoped that the East German riots in June had signaled the imminent collapse of the Communist regime, a "wishful illusion", as long as the Soviets retained the power to deploy tanks, planes and guns to stop any revolt. The food giveaway, coupled with the preceding riots and strikes, had hurt the Communist cause in the world, but it was possible that the Communist puppet regime in East Germany was actually more strongly entrenched as a result.
U.S. plans for further psychological warfare in East Germany were still being formulated, awaiting final approval from the top. Plans had been in place for at least two and a half years, based on the assumption that East Germany was the weakest point in the satellite empire. Mr. Childs indicates that a re-examination of the East German situation had to take into account the larger question of the basic assumptions of the new Administration's foreign policy. During the previous year's political campaign, Secretary of State Dulles had talked about the "liberation" of the satellite peoples, creating alarm both in the U.S. and abroad, with the result that the subject was not broached again. But all indications were that a basic conviction within the Administration was that a breakdown in the Soviet empire was not only possible but probable, helping to explain the reluctance to consider the proposal made by Prime Minister Churchill on May 11 for a meeting of the heads of state of the Big Four powers, to survey the possibility of a settlement of some of the issues long outstanding between East and West.
A letter writer commends the recent editorial on former Governor and Senator Cameron Morrison, who had died the previous week. He says that he had known Mr. Morrison and agreed with the editorial that the state would likely never see his like again. He and other Charlotte leading businessmen of the Southern Manufacturers Club I, of which he was chairman, looked forward to visits by Mr. Morrison, and appreciated his counsel. He had once told the writer that one could not ride two horses at the same time, that only a circus performer could do that, that he should obtain a Democratic donkey, and if he fell off it once or it threw him, he would not break any bones, that he should get up and ride again. He indicates that it was too bad that South Carolina did not have a gubernatorial candidate in the previous election similar to Mr. Morrison, that if so, South Carolina would not have been "sold out for a seat on the United Nations"—referring to Governor James Byrnes of that state.
A letter writer indicates that his teenage daughter had handed him the newspaper the previous evening and that on the front page had been an article about the book on female sexuality by Dr. Alfred Kinsey. He assumes that his daughter had read the article. He objects to giving free publicity to a "sexsational" book, which he believed could contribute to juvenile delinquency by indicating that a large number of people engaged in premarital sexual relations, providing them a greater chance of happiness in their subsequent marriage. He indicates that happy marriages where both spouses had been faithful to one another did not make the newspapers typically, at least not on the front page. "In conscience, do you feel that your daughter should read such tripe?" He finds that Dr. Kinsey had not pointed out that the "proving ground for infidelity and lust which is Hollywood does not seem to have brought marital happiness. Love means giving to others, not craving for self. Love is personified by Christ's example—doing for others. Jesus sweat blood in the garden of Gethsemane for our sins which included lust." He thinks it would be better to write a book about the saints who loved God and lived according to his wishes rather than one designed "to enrich a sex foundation". He indicates that "back home", the Washington Times-Herald had a sex page on page 2 of the newspaper, which was a good seller of newspapers but poor journalism, prompting many to refer to it as a "yellow sheet". He indicates that The News was too good a newspaper to go that way.
A Pome appears from the Atlanta Journal, "In Which It Is Suggested That A Calm Disposition Is Conducive To Personal Safety:
"If your temper jumps the track
You may wind up on your back."
But if you are unduly passive,
Someone may assume you flaccid.
Framed Edition
Links-Date — Links-Subj.